Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a configuration for the purification of an exhaust-gas flow of an internal combustion engine, in particular of a diesel engine, wherein particles from the exhaust-gas flow are electrically charged, agglomerated and separated out of the exhaust-gas flow. The invention also relates to a method for operating such a configuration and a motor vehicle having the configuration.
As a consequence of intensified emissions limit values, it has been necessary for some time for particles contained in the exhaust gas of internal combustion engines to be removed from the exhaust-gas flow and retained and/or if appropriate converted in the exhaust line. Furthermore, limit values with regard to particle masses (soot) to be discharged to the atmosphere, in particular by diesel engines, have been intensified as a result of legal regulations.
A multiplicity of different filter systems which have already been described for that purpose are based, for example, on so-called deep bed filters, wall-flow filters, partial-flow filters, cyclone separators and similar concepts. The treatment of the particles with electric fields, plasma and the like has also already been proposed in order to allow for the legal regulations. There are constantly new challenges for removing the differently constructed and/or composed particles from the exhaust gas as reliably and as completely as possible, specifically with regard to new fuels and/or combustion processes.
With regard to the installation of exhaust-gas purification systems in passenger motor vehicles as well as in utility vehicles, as small a structural size as possible is, in particular, in the foreground of development. Therefore, there is a demand, in particular, for compact systems which permit installation in current and future vehicle generations.